A pool management mechanism is introduced in the core network to implement load sharing between network elements and disaster recovery, reducing service interruption and improving reliability of the core network. However, the pool management mechanism in the prior art provides no peer interfaces between members. Therefore, important operations such as synchronization, backup and handover are not practicable between members, and the pool is unable to ensure continuity of online services when the pool fails.
In the prior art, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) puts forward a “pool area” concept. A pool area includes all Location Areas (LAs) or Routing Areas (RAs) which are located in a Radio Access Network (RAN) and served by a group of core network nodes. In a pool area, multiple core network nodes run concurrently, and they share services in the pool area. When a Mobile Station (MS) is covered by radio resources of a pool area, the UE is served by only one dedicated core network node in the pool area. When an MS roams in a pool area, it is not necessary to change the core network node that serves the MS, which reduces the update, handover, and migration between the core network nodes. All RAN nodes in a pool area are fully connected with all core network nodes in the pool area. Another benefit brought by a pool area that includes multiple core network nodes is: When one more core network node is added to the pool area, the pool area is better served by the core network nodes. That is, when a core network node fails, other core network nodes may provide services instead. A pool area may include diverse core network nodes, for example, Mobile Switching Center (MSC) pool, Serving General Packet Radio Service Supporting Node (SGSN) pool, and so on. FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an MSC pool.
In the process of researching and practicing the prior art, the inventor of the present invention finds at least the following defect in the prior art:
In the foregoing pool management mechanism, when one node in the pool area fails, all the service contexts stored on the faulty node are lost, which reduces the network reliability.